December FMQ Challenge and a Recap

I can't believe I really did it. I almost dropped out more than once, but as the year comes to a close I can say I completed each of the monthly challenges of the SewCalGal FMQ Challenge. Each month I would read the new challenge and sometimes my immediate thought would be, "I can't do that." But I stayed with it--I tried it all, and I am so glad I did. I am anything but a pro, however this challenge has moved me out of the rank of beginner.
I need to start this out with my December project.
Our FMQ expert this month has been Patsy Thompson. I had already acquired some of her DVDs earlier this year, and had downloaded all of her free designs from her website, so I was familiar with her. The focus of her challenge was working with border designs. I need help with borders, so this was right up my alley. But when I saw that we would need to do feathers, I shuddered. I had told myself that in 2013 I was going to focus on improving my feathers, but here it was facing me down in December. Well, I had made it this far. I wasn't going to quit now!

I downloaded the worksheets and did lots of drawing.

Filled a few scraps with practice designs.

Gave a little extra practice to the feathers.

Then went to work on this.  It is not a work of art, but I have to say,
the feathers turned out better than I had dared hope. This was my
first attempt at the "bump-bump" feather. I didn't think I would like
doing it, but I believe I could get to the point that I could use this.

Okay, here is the obligatory recap of the year.

January

February

June

July

March

April

Blogger loaded these photos so randomly. I couldn't get them in order to save me, but at least they are all here.
I learned many new things from this challenge, including the making of your own stencils, different feather styles, and new filler designs.

May

I have learned the "stuff and fluff" technique of  quilting. I have become aware of many quilting tools that were not familiar to me before. I have quilted 2 crib quilts, 2 twin size quilts, and a queen size, along with several table runners and minis. Though I had dipped my toe into the FMQ pond a couple of months before the challenge began, I was so limited in my skills and had no confidence in my ability to become a machine quilter. This challenge has jerked me out of my comfort zone and kept me moving away from it the whole year. Interestingly enough, I find that many of those "uncomfortable" things have actually become fun. I no longer fear free motion quilting. There are many designs I actually enjoy. And you know what? Those feathers weren't so bad this time around!

August

October

November

December

September

There you have it, folks, my SewCalGal FMQ Challenge 2012 results. My sincere thanks go to SewCalGal and all of the experts who have given so freely of their knowledge and time this year.

Until next time,

Janet O.

p.s. I couldn't resist coming back and adding this picture from a post over a year ago. In October of 2011 (fourteen months ago) I took my first class in FMQ and this is my earliest effort from that day. Remember this--and how you were my new best friend if you could see a pumpkin anywhere on it? How well I remember feeling like the class klutz. I share this thinking it might give another beginner some hope. : )

A surprise, flimsies, a challenge, and a winner!

This lovely little quilt arrived in the mail this week as a birthday gift from my sweet friend, Doniene. This woman knows me. Purple reproduction fabric churn dash blocks--love it!! It doesn't get any better than this! If you look closely you can see a bit of the beautiful hand quilting. I tried, but couldn't get a shot that showed the quilting better than this. Thanks you so much for this treasure!

All of the tops for my grandsons' Christmas quilts are sewn up. The baseball quilt got scrapped. I think little brother will want a Star Wars quilt when he sees big brother get one, no matter how much he loves baseball. These two are twin size.

And the youngest of my grandsons LOVES trains, so this quilt will be his. This is a crib quilt.

I need to get my November SewCalGal FMQ Challenge posted, so this seems like as good a time as any. I love to quilt swirls in random patterns, but found it a major challenge to swirl within the lines. First I practiced tracing over the printed design this month's expert, Sarah Vedeler, provided. Then I pounced grid lines on some swirl fabric left from the Star Wars quilts (seemed appropriate). I used a Design With Lines stencil from Pam Clarke.

The quilting did not go well. I tried going very slowly, but it didn't improve the swirls. On the black piece to the left I did the swirls all going the same direction. On the blue piece to the left I tried reversing the direction of the swirl each time. It felt very awkward trying to keep the swirl within the square. I had to finish up with some free swirling on the right, just for fun. I quilted one of my Halloween minis with the random swirls and really liked it.

There isn't more quilting to show because I have been doing too much of this...

...making all of the soap I need to get us through the holiday gift-giving (and supply our family's needs until I find time to make it again in the new year). For a few days after a soap making session the essential oils sure make the house smell nice.

Before I announce the giveaway winner, I want to let 5 bloggers know they are "no reply" bloggers, which means no one can respond to your comments because there is no email address attached to your account. So Dstitcher, Linda, Marcia, Carole in Nebraska and Anne Simonot, your accounts are either on "no reply" by default (that is the setting when you set up your account and it stays that way unless you change it), or you prefer not to be contacted, but that also means you lose out on giveaways where there is no way to contact you if you win. Many people don't know they are a "no reply" blogger, so I thought I would let you know.

Okay, that said, the winner of my "little" birthday giveaway is Mrs. Goodneedle! Since I already have your address, Mrs. G., I will get this in the mail to you tomorrow. Congratulations, my friend!

I will leave you with this photo I took yesterday of the moon rising over the mountains. Interestingly enough, Robin, of Solstice Studio blog (who lives a couple of hours away along the same mountain range) took a similar photo that evening and posted it here. Hers is a much closer, prettier view. Check it out.

Hopefully next post will have more quilty content. I need to get crackin' on my Barrister Sow-along blocks before Randy posts the next batch!

Until then,

Janet O.

Just under the wire again!

I almost didn't do this months FMQ Challenge at Insights From SewCalGal. I have yet to miss a month (though several times came as close to missing as I could without actually missing). The reason I thought I wouldn't do this one was because it involved using different battings, fabrics and threads. Let's face it, I'm boring. I have no silk anything--fabric or thread. My battings are all cotton or cotton/poly--no wool here. My threads are similarly bland. So I decided right off the bat that I was going to skip this one. Maybe I would make it up with a bonus tutorial, maybe not. Just possibly I would drop out all together. Oh, I was getting drastic in my thinking. But other, more daring souls forged ahead with what they had on hand. Why didn't I think of that? They inspired me. So I am posting my link by the skin of my teeth again. Here it is.

 I usually stick pretty closely to designs I have tried before, but this time I branched out with some new stuff. I had fun, other than the changing of thread. Am I the only one that doesn't enjoy frequent thread changing? Oh, and the feather wasn't fun, either. Feathers are my nemesis. I wasn't going to do one, but I figured I needed to get brave. This is patterned after Sally Terry's hooked feathers. It is better than some I have quilted, but that is still my least favorite corner of this project.
The fabric is cotton, the batting is a scrap of cotton left from a larger quilt. These are the threads I used--a couple of size 30 Poly Quilter's Choice by Golden Threads, size 40 Poly Glide, size 50 cotton Aurifil, size 50 cotton Mettler, size 40 cotton Signature, size 40 poly Isacord, and size 50 cotton Gutermann.

I've also worked on quilting my Mountain Trail today. Hopefully I will get it bound in the next day or two and link it up with Lori at Humble Quilts.

My time is almost up to link this with the FMQ Challenge, so I'd better do it now. 

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Hanging up, catching up and keeping up--barely!

HANGING UP--"Flies in the Mustard" is in its new home. I know my name isn't quite as refined as the "Pink Lemonade" by which Lori's QAL was known, but I figured with the shoo-fly blocks in the mustardy color I used, it was appropriate.

A friend bound this for me (thanks, Brenda) and it has been finished for a while. We just couldn't connect up to let it change hands. I love this little quilt. Aren't Lori's doll quilt patterns wonderful? Speaking of which, I have tried without success to locate a copy of Primitive Quilts and Projects with her pattern in it. Can anyone tell me how to find one?

CATCHING UP-- Randy will be posting the next batch of blocks for the Barrister's Sow-Along on Wednesday. I've had the plaid ones finished from the last postings for a few days and I just got the Christmas blocks made for the ones I decided to duplicate (I chose not to make Birds in the Air in the holiday fabrics). Many of these fabrics are from the recent packages from blog friends who have sent their leftover holiday fabrics. So appreciated!

Here they are all together. So I am ready for the next group now, Randy. Bring 'em on!!

KEEPING UP--I'd better post my April Free Motion Quilt project from SewCalGal's challenge before it turns into a pumpkin. I have 28 minutes to get this posted and linked before the link closes. What does it say about me that for the Feb., March and April challenges I have been the very last person to link up before it closes? Why am I always working on this at the very last minute?

Don Linn taught us how to make our own stencils using tulle, an embroidery hoop, Sharpie marker, and a fabric marker. Really quite effective. I chose not to use the design he provided, but I did use his technique. Here is the stencil I made from a design I found online.

Then I traced it onto my fabric with a washable marker.

 This is what I got.

 And this was the final product. I learned a valuable lesson from this. I am not good at staying on the line. I slowed waaaay down and still struggled to keep a fluid motion. I had a bobbin thread issue at one point and just left it there. I had already made a practice effort and I knew I wasn't improving much. It is an excellent method for transferring designs, I just need a whole bunch more practice sticking to the line as I go. It is much easier to me to freehand a flowy design. But I'm glad to have learned this. I'm sure it will come in very handy as my skills at following the lines (hopefully) improve. 

One last thing--a couple of posts back someone asked about my new machine. I would love to reply, but you are a "no-reply" blogger. If it was you, please email me (email available on my profile page) from an email address to which I can reply, so that I can answer you.

That's all for now.

Until next time,
Janet O.